viresco

Forms

virēscō (present infinitive virēscere, perfect active viruī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vireō (“to be green, flourish”) + -scō, an inchoative verb meaning “to begin to be green”.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first recorded use is in Lucretius,^[4][3] who writes that branches grow green on the trees (rāmī virēscunt arboribus).^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is used of plants and of things in general that turn green: Virgil speaks of grasses that grow green without being sown, Ovid of webs on the loom turning green, Pliny the Elder of fruit that turns green, and Seneca of doorways green with laurel.^[3][5]

From the sense “to grow, flourish” it came to be said of a people's or a person's growth: Florus calls the youth of the Roman people the time when it was most flourishing (quā maximē viruit).^[4][3][6] Claudian uses it of things that spring forth in abundance, and Ambrose still uses it of plants.^[4][3]

Italian kept it as a literary borrowing, virescere.^[1]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius writes of branches turning green.^[4][3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of grass in the Georgics.^[3][5][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[3][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of fruit that turns green.^[3][5][7]
• c. 120 AD – Florus uses it of the Roman people at its most flourishing.^[4][6][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of plants) To put out green growth, become verdant; to turn green.^[2][4][3]
2. (figurative) To flourish, grow strong, prosper.^[4][3][6]
3. (figurative) To spring forth, come out in numbers.^[4][3]

Related words

• vireō
• viridis
• vīs

Usage notes

A second verb vīrēscō, from vīs “strength” with the suffix -ēscō, means “to regain strength”;^[2][1][5] Aulus Gellius discusses the word.^[2] Conte files under it the line virēscit vulnere virtūs (“courage grows stronger from a wound”) of the poet Furius Antias, quoted by Gellius,^[5] and Gaffiot thinks it perhaps belongs here,^[6] whereas Lewis & Short put it under virēscō “flourish”.^[4] In Lucretius 1.674, once read with virēscat, the correct reading is vigēscat.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de